


A Downpour In Spring

by adevyish



Category: Tennis no Oujisama | Prince of Tennis
Genre: Alternate Universe - Boy Band, Fake/Pretend Relationship, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-03
Updated: 2017-07-03
Packaged: 2018-11-22 18:48:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,273
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11386227
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/adevyish/pseuds/adevyish
Summary: Eiji and Oishi are the cute boyfriends of boyband Seigaku, according to their manager, their fans, and everyone except Eiji and Oishi themselves.





	A Downpour In Spring

**Author's Note:**

> For [this Bonus Round 1 fill](http://sportsanime.dreamwidth.org/21522.html?thread=10312722#cmt10312722). Thanks for the amazing prompt yrindor!

Every member of a boyband has an assigned role. As part of up-and-coming boyband Seishun Gakuen, Eiji knows this very well. Over the past three years they spent more time building personas than perfecting choreography. They’ve built a solid fanbase with unrelenting schedule of public stages, idol festivals, and fan meets, and it’s finally paid off: Seigaku is about to release their debut major album.

When evil overlord manager Ryuuzaki first assembled Seigaku, she’d taken one look at Eiji and assigned him to the cute role. In a nine-member group though, _just cute_ isn’t enough to stand out and get fans. So he may have taken _just cute_ and dialled it up to eleven; he may have started with as a pouter and ended up as an over-the-top clinger.

Less fortunate for Eiji, said clinginess has caused fans to romantically link him with Oishi, the group’s perfect boyfriend. Eiji’s had fangirls explained to him. First of all, evil manager overlord. Second, Fuji, their group’s designated playboy, has an older sister who was the head of the infamous Yamato Shounen fanclub. He knows teasing boy-boy relationships is just part of the game.

Eiji still doesn’t quite get it though. He and Oishi are friends of proximity. They shared the same homeroom in a performing arts high school for three years, and the same idol group for two-and-a-half overlapped. He’s on good terms with Oishi, but they don’t share similar interests or even musical tastes. Their text message history is mostly photos of cute fish. Yet to their fans, they’re the Golden Pair. Countless glossy photoshoots in _Junon_ and _B-Pass_ attest to it.

So here he is, paging the thin script for their next single’s promotional video with annoyance. The powers that be have decided that teasing fans isn’t enough; Eiji now has a full romantic subplot with his fake almost-boyfriend Oishi. Eiji knows he should be happy that he’s getting so much screen time for a big group, not busy plotting revenge. At least he doesn’t have to kiss anyone.

Yet.

*

It’s the first day of PV filming for “Koikaze”, and Eiji is in uniform as part of “Seishun Gakuen”. He’s a year and a bit too old for the high school concept, but at least it’s not anthropomorphized bullet trains. Oishi, meanwhile, is playing the role of the school’s tennis captain receiving a confession from a kouhai. Eiji’s only role in this scene is as the eavesdropper pining for the tennis captain.

The kouhai is a pretty yamato nadeshiko, played by a model Eiji had greeted earlier and already forgotten the name of. Eiji, Seigaku’s Eiji, doesn’t need to like her anyway. He makes a face, and turns away.

“Cut,” the director shouts. “Good, good, we can move on to the next scene.”

The morning passes like this, filming scenes of Eiji watching Oishi from afar and vice versa. When they break for lunch, Eiji heads to the nearest vending machine. He buys a mango Calpis and a pear Mitsuya Cider, and wanders to the bike racks where Oishi is.

“Hey,” Eiji says, offering Oishi the cider.

Oishi blinks, and looks up at him. “Thanks,” he says, taking the bottle. He opens it and takes a slow sip.

Eiji sits down beside Oishi, putting an arm over his shoulder. He doesn’t know what to say at all. He takes a chug of Calpis and swings his legs, trying to come up with something.

“Are you fine?” Oishi asks, and trust Oishi to be the one looking out for everyone else. The perfect boyfriend indeed.

“I don’t know,” Eiji says. “It’s supposed to be uncomfortable, but we’re acting so it’s not. It’s weird. I don’t even know how to be jealous.”

“Didn’t you have a lot of girlfriends before you signed on to be an idol?” Oishi asks. His tone is kind and open, and Eiji doesn’t know if that’s honest.

“Yeah, but I wasn’t ever jealous?” Eiji replies. “They were fun.”

Oishi shrugs and takes a drink. “If I’m honest, I always thought of you as the jealous type? You’re always clinging to people or trying to get the most fan gifts.”

Eiji bristles. “I didn’t buy you a drink so you could judge me.”

“I’m not judging you,” Oishi responds. “It’s kind of cute.”

Eiji glares at him, but at Oishi’s smile he relents and pouts instead.

Oishi takes it as a sign to continue. “I just always thought you’d be the type of boyfriend who liked to have a close connection with their girlfriend all the time. Like, if we were dating we’d always be texting if we weren’t hanging out.”

“We’re friends and I always text you,” Eiji protests.

“But you’d text your girlfriend more,” Oishi says.

“Why are we even talking about my non-existent girlfriend,” Eiji says, and before Oishi can respond they’re called back to set.

*

Eiji and Oishi’s confession scene is dramatic. They’ve hired a rain machine, and Eiji detests getting soaked. It’ll be a cutscene in the PV, so Eiji has a few lines of dialogue that he read once then emphatically pretended he hadn’t.

“ _Cut!_ Kikumaru, do you know your lines at all?”

“I’m sorry,” Eiji says, bowing. He’s not going to cry, damn it.

The director calls for a break, and Eiji slumps. He finds a far patch of sidewalk to sit on and tries to not to yell into his hands.

“Hey,” Oishi says. Eiji looks up to see Oishi leaning down in front of him, holding out a towel, always there for him in small ways.

“Thanks,” Eiji says, taking the towel and wiping off his wet bangs.

“Do you want to go over the lines?” Oishi asks.

“Not really,” Eiji mumbles.

Oishi sits with him, like the wet asphalt isn’t an issue at all. “I wanted to yell at you, but it’d be hypocritical because I didn’t want this either.”

Eiji rolls his eyes. “You’re acting perfectly, though.”

“I got my screaming out of the way,” Oishi laughs. Eiji can’t help but laugh with him because it’s so unbelievable that it’s funny. Oishi says, in a softer voice, “I know you never liked this fan service thing to begin with, but is it so bad that it’s me?”

“It’s not you,” Eiji blurts out. He pauses, testing his words again, and realizes that’s true. It wasn’t Oishi’s fault Eiji kept holding him at a false distance, when he’d wanted Oishi around always.

Eiji fiddles his fingers. “The fans, they expect this perfect couple, you know? And I feel like I’m going to let them down.”

“When Ryuuzaki-san first told us about our pairing I was worried too,” Oishi says.

“Why?” And Eiji adds, with slight sarcasm, “It’s been good for our popularity, hasn’t it?”

Oishi shakes his head. “Not like that. I was worried that everyone had seen through me, that they all knew I had this crush on you.”

Eiji blinks. “Oh.”

“Sorry,” Oishi says.

“You don’t need to be sorry for your feelings,” Eiji says. Not when it means Oishi will be there for Eiji. “It’s. It’s nice I guess. Can I hug you?”

“Eiji,” Oishi starts.

“This day is going terribly right now and I want a hug,” Eiji says.

Oishi puts his arms around Eiji and they’re both soaking wet, but Eiji finds that he doesn’t really care.

(They do end up kissing in the rain. No camera captures it.)

*

They’re doing a couples photoshoot for _Arena Plus_ where Eiji and Oishi get to feed each other parfaits and be terribly cute. Eiji loves it.

“Hey, Oishi,” Eiji says.

“Yeah?”

“You’re going to frame this photoshoot, right?”

**Author's Note:**

> References! “Koikaze” is a song off Oishi’s first album ([translation](http://goldenink.livejournal.com/11409.html)). The parfait photoshoot is based off [this cute scene from Dream Live 1st](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Afp8JUAQD-Q#t=0m28) and the fan club off the manga _O-Guts_. The anthropomorphized bullet train idol group is real and does [jazz breakdowns on baguette saxophones](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KbQ-NcbgUq8).


End file.
